Creating Custom Slide Shows in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Learn how to create custom slide shows in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

Author:Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

OS: Mac OS X

Date Created: October 01, 2014Last Updated: October 01, 2014

Has it ever happened that you wanted to include just a few slides in your slide show rather than displaying the entire presentation? Then you
need not delete the slides that need not be shown, nor do you need to create a whole new presentation containing only the slides to be shown. All
you need to do is to create a Custom Slide Show! So, what's a custom slide show? Think of your individual slides as songs within a playlist, using
the playlist analogy, your custom slide show is a playlist of those songs, you just substitute songs for slides! Even better, since this is like a
playlist, you do not have to delete the slides that are not used. And there's more, you can create any number of playlists, errrr custom slide
shows!

Follow these steps to learn how to create a Custom Slide Show in PowerPoint 2011:

Open the presentation in which you wish to create a Custom Slide Show.

Access the Slide Show tab on the Ribbon, as shown
highlighted in red within Figure 1 and click the Custom Shows button (shown
highlighted in blue within Figure 1). This brings up a drop-down menu, within this drop-down
menu, click the Edit Custom Shows option, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Edit Custom Shows option

This brings up the Custom Shows dialog box, as shown in Figure 2. Note that the area on the left, highlighted
in blue is completely blank, that's because this particular presentation contains no custom slide show yet. Within
this dialog box, now click the New button, shown highlighted in red within Figure 2.

Figure 2: Custom Shows dialog box

This will open the Define Custom Show dialog box, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Define Custom Show dialog box

All the options within the Define Custom Show dialog box are explained below, as marked in Figure 3, above:

A. Slide show name:

Here you can provide name for your Custom Slide Show. By default PowerPoint may just call this
Custom Show 1, but you can type in a new, more descriptive name.

B. Slides in presentation:

Shows a list of slides within the current presentation. To select slide(s), click the slide name. To
select multiple slides, select the first slide, and then press the Shift or Command key to select more slides.

C. Add:

This button adds the selected slides from the Slides in presentation area to the
Slides in custom show area. Note that unless you select some slides within the Slides in presentation area, the
Add button stays greyed out. Do note that you can also add the same slide more than once.

D. Remove:

This button removes selected slides from the Slides in custom show area. Note that unless you select a
slide within the Slides in custom show area, the Remove button stays greyed out.

E. Slides in custom show:

Once you add the slides, this area shows the list of slides within the current custom show.
Figure 4, below shows four slides added within Slides in custom show list (highlighted in
red).

Figure 4: Slides added within Slides in custom show list

F. Re-order:

The Up and Down buttons (highlighted in blue within
Figure 4, above) are active only when there are slides added within Slides in custom show list. Use the
Up and Down buttons to re-order the sequence of the selected slide(s).

Click the OK button to create your custom show.

This brings you back to the Custom Shows dialog box, as shown in Figure 5. The custom show created can be seen
within this dialog box (compare with the similar dialog box in Figure 2, shown earlier on this page).

Figure 5: Custom Shows dialog box with the custom show listed

To preview the custom show, select it from the list and click the Show button, as shown highlighted in
red within Figure 5 above.

Within the Custom Shows dialog box, you will find few other buttons also (see Figure 5).
They are:

• New: Creates new custom shows.

• Edit: Used to edit a selected custom show.

• Remove: Deletes an existing, selected custom show.

• Copy: Used to create a duplicated copy of the selected custom show. This option is very useful if you want to create similar
custom shows where only a few slides differ.

Once you are happy with your custom show, click the Close button, highlighted in blue within
Figure 5, above.

Have your ever used keyboard shortcuts and sequences in PowerPoint? Or are you a complete keyboard aficionado?
Do you want to learn about some new shortcuts? Or do you want to know if your favorite keyboard shortcuts are documented?